Abundance of the Moment

Perfect Dumplings

For lunch today I had home made duck soup with dumplings..a miracle..dumplings.  For years..decades.actually.I have tried to make dumplings so many times with so many different techniques and so many different recipes and always the same result..a gooey mess that sucks up all the broth.  My mother let me try so many times, directly in her broth, and always the same.. 

Today as I considered risking the broth in this amazing soup to try one more time, the cosmos..or maybe my mother from the Great Beyond.... suddenly whispered in my ear.."What about that nice bamboo steamer dear..you know..on top of the soup..above .it"   And there it was ..two tiers of unbelieavbly fluffy and perfect dumplings nesting in the bamboo steamer.


A moment of perfect abundance.  January 24, 2011


LEMON WONDER...Cleaning Green

It is very hard to go green and be a good steward for the world when you hit the cleaning products aisle in our remote corner of America.  So I am thrilled to now have the most effective, universal, economical, and wonderfully fresh smelling cleaner I have ever ever used....lemons..just lemons and tap water.  And now that I have it refined enough to spray on, it is even more of a joy that housekeepers have taken to it as well.  I just save all my lemon rinds in the freezer til I have enough to work with ( the rinds of 8 lemons will fill a large spray bottle)..harvest the zest only with a  kitchen rasp..blend with about 2.5 cups of water, strain through a a cloth funnel or fine strainer.  Lemon is one of the most effective grease cutters there is and also one of the best disinfectants.  Applied with a chamois or faux chamois the finish sparkle puts even magic eraser to shame. You can even spray it on your skin as a naturally fresh anti-bacterial toner!   As you can see my kitchen has lots of stainless, including stainless small appliances and many super shiny ceramics and assorted silver pitchers.  My lemon spray makes it so quick and easy to keep every surface, even wood and painted surfaces shiny and sanitary.

See Clean: The  Zen Art of Cleansing by Micahel DeJong , and my review of it on Amazon   http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Humble-Zen-Cleansing-Michael-DeJong/dp/1402747667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296051466&sr=1-1 

 for lots of recipes and ideas for using only baking soda, salt, white veinegar, lemon, and good old fashioned borax for all your cleaning needs.

Cove Meadow January 26, 2011